Installation, 1 year later by interior designer Amanda Burdge

Often times when I design a space, I try to design with the future in mind, and as many variables as possible. Design is an investment, and most people do not have the capability to do it over and over again. When I revisit a space that I have done, I am always pleased to see how it looks, and how it has been lived in, and used.

Doc Harr's office, 1 and a half later

Today I went to go see Dr. Harr. He had a little mishap with a painter, who may or may not have damaged a chair by completely falling on it and destroying it; but that is besides the point. The point is, it was an excuse to go see my favorite dentist, and his beautiful, and spectacular office designed by a wonderful and talented designer, MUWAH!

I was so very pleased to see the office, a little over a year later, looking fabulous. Everything was still in place, in tact, and perfect, just as I had planned it.

Nothing like revisiting a design in it's full glory seeing it functioning beautifully and looking fabulous. The space is comfortable, easy on the eyes, and a great introduction to a root canal! Ok, maybe not, but the space still looks fantastic, and I am pleased to say, the designer did an outstanding job! 

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Sid Dickens Memory Blocks available in Brentwood TN

AB HOME Studios

Now until July 2nd we will be running a promotion on our Sid Dickens tiles. Buy one memory block tile, and receive the second tile 25% off. On top of this exciting and rare promotion, Sid Dickens is inviting you to enter their, 'IN THE WILD CONTEST.'

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Submit photos of your memory block collections for a chance to win a one of a kind framed peice, handmade by Sid Dickens himself. And they are not looking for the typical room shots. They want something different, eclectic, and wild. Create your own composition, mix in your favorite things, and tell them a visual story with your favorite blocks.

Sid Dickens

Your story can be big or small, so snap a photo and send in by Monday, July 5th, 2010. The winning entry will be showcased online and will receive a beautifully framed, custom memory block made personally, and signed by Sid Dickens.

For more info on this contest email AB HOME Interiors @ info@abhomeinteriors.com, or to submit your collection, fill out the Sid Dickens memory blocks 'In the Wild' contest form here. We are so excited about this fun contest, and can't wait to see what you all come up with!

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Drapery Installation day with Amanda Burdge

One of my favorite things to design in a home is custom draperies. When I am first starting out with a new client they often want to purchase ready-made, or massed produced draperies, from a big box store like pottery barn, to keep it on the cheap. Massed produced draperies are great for secondary rooms, or projects that just don't have the room for a large expense. But if your budget allows, nothing, and I mean nothing compares to CUSTOM draperies.

A lot goes into custom draperies. First, you need to develop a budget. And this isn't a random number that you pull out of your magical rabbit hat and hope on a wing and a prayer that it can be done. For example, if you have a large two story window, you will need twice the fabric, lining, and interlining. SO, you will need twice the budget. Many times when I start on a job with a client they will immediately tell me all the fabulous things they want, and need to do, not realizing that their champagne taste cannot be done for the $1200 they have budgeted. This can lead to disappointment, but if you plan ahead, and have a realistic budget, you can have the champagne, with a glass!

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Do your research on local workrooms, or hire a designer to help you develop a budget for the room you have in mind. You can also visit wonderful blogs, like In Stitches, to learn terminology, and read up on books like Design Directory of Window Treatments,  by Jackie Von Tobel, to familiarize yourself with the treatments you love.

After you have developed a budget, a fabric needs to be selected. Fabric plays a major role in the look and feel of the room, but must also be appropriate for draperies. In the custom world you will hear us use the word "hand". If a fabric has a wonderful hand, that means it will hang well, and drape beautifully. Very, very important! Drapes are like a ball gown for your room! Once the fabric has been selected and ordered a decision can then be made on the type of hardware you want to use.

For this project, I chose a beautiful cotton/linen sheer, with an embroidered knit. We chose this fabric not only for it's beautiful hand, but the embroidery was key to help in noise absorption for my client's tall ceilings. 

AB HOME Studios

After a fabric has been chosen, it is ordered, and sent to the workroom to start production. Depending on the area you live in, custom draperies can take 3-8 weeks to make. Here in Nashville the average turn around time is 6-8 weeks, but when I lived in Las Vegas they could be done in two!!

Naked window before

Once the workroom has completed the draperies, a time is scheduled to install them, and this is a very exciting day. Your naked window gets transformed in front of your eyes into that beautiful ball gown.

The hardware goes up, and one by one the custom panels get installed.

Very carefully the team goes through the draperies and dresses them, making sure they are hanging just perfectly, and refining the pleats to fold immaculately. 

After each fold is attended to, the draperies are complete, and hanging flawlessly. Bravo team!! My client was over the moon about this installation today, and was very pleased with the decision to purchase custom draperies, over ready-mades, and I could not agree more! 

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Tea Sets by interior designer Amanda Burdge

One of my client's often goes to a local tea house, here in Brentwood, called World Cup of Tea. They are a tea house that offers premium and rare teas, along with various tea accessories, and teapots. I myself have never been a huge tea drinker. I am often admiring from afar, but because I love the tea pots, I play along, and buy ridiculous stock in pots, cups, and platters that I don't need, but love to collect! And I have to admit I will occasionally indulge in a lovely and exotic lipton peach tea in the winter!

Pottery Barn

How lovely is this set from Pottery Barn? I just want to sit down in my yellow summer dress, with friends, eat cucumber sandwiches and enjoy an afternoon of laughter, and giggles.

Molla Space

This set is so sweet! How great would this be as a wedding gift, or for your best friend? Or how about a romantic evening on the terrace with your better half watching the sunset?

Rock and Republic

Ok, so the set above is a little too sticky sweet for you? Well take a look at the terrorist teapot by Rocking Republic. A little sass, a little humor, and a whole lotta fun. Bring on the lipton tea!

Heres a few more of my favorites that I found, that would look very handsome in my teapot collection:

Abbot

Deer Silhouette

Don't you want to have some tea? Well, I think it's a bit hot, but I am sure I can make a pot of iced tea and any of these great pots would work beautifully for an afternoon of chilled, sweet tea, from the south.

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July Market Atlanta, 2010 with Amanda Burdge

Every Winter and Summer I make my way down to Atlanta, to visit Market. Those of you who are faithful followers ( Pssst....I adore you!), have seen me post about this so-called "market". Well as an industry designer for over 12 years, it never occurred to me that the layman has absolutely no clue what this is! Until I emailed Dayka Robinson over at Meditations on Life and style and asked her if she would like to accompany me.

"I keep hearing about this! Is that the gift/home market at the americas mart?  how is it??  I'm trying to figure out a way to get in this year!  let me know what (if anything) i need to know about this."

Dayka and I have exchanged several emails over the past few months, primarily because I'm stalking her about Atlanta, and all the great things the city has to offer.  I always go to Atlanta for business, and am enamored with Atlanta's southern charm and glamour. But I am always the outsider looking in, getting in the way on the road, driving too slow and getting all sorts of lost,  frustrating the local city dwellers. Boy can those locals get rowdy!

So this year I thought I would reach out to Dayka, bright eyed and bushy tailed, to convince her that I would now be her best gal July 15th-18th. We did a little horse trading, teeth pulling, and hard negotiating but we came up with a very fair swap. She shows me Atlanta, and I show her Market. Well, I feel like I have a V.I.P. access card to the coolest club in town, with the coolest kid on the block. I cannot wait!

Americas Mart

Colonial Mills

I think she will adore Market. One after another, like an indoor market place, vendors are lined up trying to persuade the buyers that their product is the best, and that they have something no one else does. Of course everyone knocks everyone else off, so that is not entirely true! But more than ever, I am excited to go this year. Her fresh faced enthusiasm to see this for the first time will be thrilling. And I of course will feel like a kid in a candy store (we all know how much I LOVE candy) given access to my favorite city.

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What everyone needs to know about building Libraries, by Amanda Burdge

I'm currently working on a home that is in need of a design solution. Off the main family room is a pass through, that leads to the laundry room. However, this pass through is 12x10. It is essentially a room but with only one half wall and one main wall. My suggestion to the client is to make it into a place of purpose.

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 Something that looks intended, instead of an after thought. My solution? A library with booze storage. What better a way to spend an afternoon, then pouring yourself into a good book, and getting sloshed?

This sketch, done by my awesome cabinet maker, Doug Lawler, is done for the main and longest wall, in our quasi room. This unit will provide much needed book storage, accessory storage, and will also provide great accent lighting.

This wall, which is the shorter wall, will provide the wine, booze and glass storage. It will also add sparkle with the reflection from the mirror, and add additional lighting. Sketch also done by Doug.

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Bookshelves in a home add sophistication, refinement, and exude culture and experience. It was not too long ago that an education was something that was considered very valuable, and a person who had a library was considered worldly, and rich. Books were expensive, and literacy was prized and esteemed. 

And yes, booze has been around since the dawn of time, and probably not considered worldly, but it sure is nice to sip on a lovely vino while curled up to a classic Jane Austen! 

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Install day, afters Nashville Interior designer Amanda Burdge

Ok, so earlier today I put up a post of before pics on the job we installed today. Here are the afters!

Before: (look at the fireplace)

After:

Before:

After: 

(sorry about the quality, the lighting was bad, and I did not snap a pic with the room completed with the pics on the wall!)

Install day Franklin Tennessee Interior Designer, Amanda Burdge

So we are loading up the van, and heading out to a clients house this afternoon for the install. It was a pretty tall order, for not a lot of money. The client needed new paint (expensive), new fireplace surround (expensive) and he wanted furniture for his family room, living room, and dining room. And he wanted ALL of this done for 15k. Well I am one hell of a designer, but I can't make miracles happen. Especially when we started with all NEW furniture. Here are the befores

Family room before

Family room before

Living room before

Living room before

Now I know these pics are bad, took them with my phone, but you get the idea. I will have the after photos up this afternoon. Is the anticipation killing you? I know right? Me too. Stay tuned!

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Colorful Friends and Colorful Conversation, by Nashville Interior designer, Amanda burdge

Today Lori Sawaya, from Color Budz, Kelly Berg, from Arte Styling and myself did a podcast on lighting, and how it effects color! I want to thank both of them for being so gracious, and allowing me to BLAB on and on about the new and exciting technology's in LED lighting. 

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As we transition into the next decade we are going to see a huge push in energy conservation, and recycling of materials. But what does that mean for our homes and interiors? Well with new research and development in LED lighting, we will no longer have to sacrifice quality of light to appease sustainability demands.

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The lighting we have in our homes effects everything from mood, color and atmosphere. And when you are selecting a wall color, you are not just picking paint. Selecting the right color is a science, and a skillful art. Many factors come into play when selecting the right one. If you get all the components right, you have design magic. But mess it up, just one thing, and you have design disorder.

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We touched on several exciting things in the world of lighting. Most importantly the way to buy a bulb. There is a lot of info on the bulb box, and trying to decipher it can be perplexing. We broke down key things to look for, terminology, and why buying smart will effect the way you purchase today so you free up your tomorrows. 

For more info on the hosts, and color pods, click here.

Thanks again for letting me hang out with y'all today. I cannot wait to hear Lori work her magic on the editing, and as soon as it goes live, I will let all of you know!

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Goofing off, acting out, and playing hooky, by Amanda Burdge

As I have mentioned before, blogging is definitely a winter sport. I am finding myself easily distracted by simple shiny things like S-U-N, 85 degrees, floaties, and booze...I mean a nice cool beverage. Now I should be doing VERY important things (like pushing papers from one side of my desk to other side) but instead I am straining like a naughty Jedi to keep my cool and refraining from lewd acts of acting out, goofing off, and just being plain irresponsible!

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Now I know that this is an intelligent (who are we fooling?) blog of important topics, great design tips, and encouraging photos of pretty, marvelous things. The idea is to be motivated and inspired, right? As a "creative" blogger I strive for this goal everyday. Bringing you, my faithful followers, inspiration and imagination.....until the sun comes out, and I'd rather be goofing off, acting out and playing hooky.

Apparently, these Nashville Target shoppers are so energized by the sun, they have forgotten their manners, caught the H.D.A.D.D bug and forgot what their mamas told them about putting their stuff away! For those of you unaware about HDADD, it's a new form of A.D.D, that I myself have invented, and it's A.D.D in it's clearest form.

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So in an effort to appear professional, accomplished, and most importantly competent, I will leave you with a few pics of beautiful pools, because after all this is a blog about great tips, imagination and pretty things. I can at least attempt to bring you this blog's purpose, even if it is a half witted effort, right?

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Ohhhhhhhh!!!!

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

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P-R-E-T-T-Y!!!!!

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Lovely!!!!

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And when we are done goofing off, (which should be around the end of August) dancing like no body's watchin, and the iTunes has repeated itself a few hundred times,

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We will curl up for a good long nap with friends, to prepare for winter blogging. Ha!! Phew! 

God, I love summer! 

Hope everyone is having a fantastic day, and don't forget the sunscreen and floaties!